PM: UK never replied to my call for reparations

THE Prime Minister complained that his call for talks on reparations had not even elicited an acknowledgement from the United Kingdom (UK), as he addressed the Emancipation Day celebrations on Tuesday at the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain.

Dr Rowley recalled recent regrets over the trans-Atlantic slave trade expressed by members of the British Royal Family.

In June 2022 in Rwanda, King Charles III who was then Prince Charles, the Duke of Edinburgh, declared, “I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact."

In March 2023 Jamaica, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge said, “Slavery was abhorrent and it never should have happened.

“I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.”

Rowley said at the time of his visit to Barbados when it became a republic, he had noted royals attempting to apologise and take some responsibility for a bit of their history, namely slavery. He said he had then written to King Charles and the British prime minister to tell them Caricom has a committee on reparations, having reckoned it was "a good time" to do. The crowd cheered.

However, Rowley went on, to refer to the address of the British prime minister, saying, "From number ten Downing Street, I never got a response.

“Just to tell you where we are in this world, who we are in this world, I tell you now, it must be the only time in the history of the British Commonwealth that a letter would have come from a Prime Minister to Buckingham Palace and to Number 10 Downing Street and never got a response.

"Never got a courtesy of a reply because I raised African Emancipation and reparation with those who believe that it was their birthright and we were entitled to be enslaved." He then sought to brush off the snub.

“But today as we celebrate in Trinidad and Tobago in the presence of an African King, whether they reply or they don’t reply, we will move onward and upward in freedom, as free black people wherever we are anywhere in this world."

He then invited Asantehene His Royal Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to come to the podium to speak, saying, "Welcome to a free Trinidad and Tobago."

Rowley earlier recalled past visits to TT by Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie I, Ghanaian leader Flight Lt Jerry Rawlins and Nigerian former president Jonathon Goodluck, but viewed the Asante king as "a blood relative" with a royal connection to west Africa. 'This is a family gathering."